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Boys Soccer: Freedom, Wharton In 5A-8 Final

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A Tribune staff report

Published: January 29, 2009

TAMPA - Freedom and Wharton are by no means strangers on the soccer field. Less then five miles separate the two high schools, and after both won district semifinal matches Wednesday, Wharton and Freedom are headed for a fourth straight Class 5A-District 8 final.

Wharton coach Scott Ware, readily admitted to the rivalry between the two teams after his Wildcats defeated Newsome 2-0 and prior to the Patriots' 6-0 win against King.

"Freedom and us always have that rivalry because we are so close," Ware said. "Usually our games are - I don't want to say that they are ugly - but they aren't exactly skillful. The emotions between these boys are high and that leads to either having a chance of winning."

Both teams reached the final with shutout wins. The Wildcats broke the 0-0 tie early in the second half on a header from Will Hunt in the box after a nice cross from Gerald Sheaffer for the deciding goal. Wharton added a second goal in the final minutes of the match on a shot from Glenn Duffy.

The Patriots dominated against King behind two goals by Eliot Toledo. Manny Martes, Taylor Nalls and John Beauplan also scored.

Jarrett Guthrie

River Ridge Pulls One Out In 5A-7

BROOKSVILLE - Playing a man down in a tie game against the host team, second-seeded River Ridge (12-8-1) completed an unlikely comeback 2-1 against Brooksville Central in the Class 5A-District 7 semifinals, thanks to a brilliant header by a player who didn't seem healthy enough to play just minutes earlier.

After getting stomped on by a Bears (12-6) player in the second half, Joey Balsamo moved in on a perfectly lofted throw-in by Jason Maneras and scored the game-winner with 2:45 left. The win set up a rematch with top-seeded Land O' Lakes (22-2-2), which cruised past Ridgewood (4-21) 8-0 in the first game.

"They fought, they played a great game. We thought it would come, and finally, it did," Royal Knights coach Mike McHugh said. "Man down, the odds aren't in your favor to come back and win in regulation. Obviously, most teams would probably play for a tie."

The Bears scored first when David Mazo blasted a shot home from 18 yards in the 42nd minute. But the Knights scored twice in the last 10 minutes, the first coming from Alex Ratkovic on a pass from Vinny Panetta.

The Gators scored five times in the first 19 minutes. Dominic Cutrofello had three goals, Felix Soto and Tyler Horvath had two and Justin Lyles had the final score.

Bart O'Connell

East Lake Edges Dunedin 1-0

PALM HARBOR - East Lake (19-0-4) held off a determined Dunedin (9-6-2) 1-0 to advance to the final of the Class 5A-District 9 boys soccer tournament at Palm Harbor University High.

The second-seeded Eagles will take on No. 1-seed Palm Harbor on Friday.

The Eagles scored with about 26 minutes to go in the first half when Brett Hummel headed a shot off a free kick by Andrew Smith.

Goalkeeper Andrew Hindman had a strong game for the third-seeded Falcons. It was the second one-goal win by East Lake against Dunedin.

Palm Harbor (18-4-4) took a 4-1 win against Tarpon Springs (7-7-1).

Palm Harbor jumped to a 2-0 first-half lead, but Wesley Charpie's header cut the margin to 2-1 as the fourth-seeded Spongers played tough. The Hurricanes added two second-half scores to close it out.

Mike Moore

Leto, Jesuit Outlast Foes

The underdogs in Wednesday's Class 5A-District 10 semifinals hung around and hung around, and then ... hung around some more.

Meantime, the favorites, Leto and Jesuit, got a little concerned, Leto a little more than Jesuit.

The Falcons, in fact, needed overtime before defeating Plant 1-0 as Cesar Camino chipped the ball past the diving keeper.

"That's been the story all year," Leto coach Scott Vomacka said. "We get the chances but have a problem putting it away, especially against the better teams."

For Jesuit it wasn't quite as tough as the Tigers scored just before halftime when Russell Moore took a pinpoint cross from Keith Sierra and slipped it under Hillsborough's keeper. Jesuit sealed it in the 54th minute when Cory Anderson lofted a cross to Stephen Gathman, who headed the ball into an open net.

The victories set up Friday's final, a rematch from a game almost two weeks ago. Jesuit (22-1-1) beat Leto (13-8-1) 3-0 the first time around.

Scott Purks

Osceola To Play Seminole In 5A-11

Osceola's Peter Fraser scored the golden goal two minutes into overtime and his hat trick performance earned the Warriors a 3-2 win and a spot in the Class 5A-District 11 championship match against Seminole on Friday. Seminole beat Dixie Hollins 2-0.

For the winning goal, Fraser played off Spartan keeper Reujuar Farrell's mishandle and put a slow low roller into the empty net. Fraser's goal capped his three-goal night in which he scored on a header in the first half. In the second half, Fraser went one-on-one with Farrell and beat the keeper with a dart of a shot.

"I saw the keeper mis-hit the ball. It was a perfect opportunity to score a goal. It went straight in," Fraser said.

Lakewood got goals by Troy Matthews and Hamza Elohmani.

Seminole beat Dixie Hollins in rough match where nine yellow cards were handed out. Sean Rafferty scored the opening goal for the Warhawks in the first half, a right-footer near the net off a long cross by Christian McHale. McHale added a second-half goal that iced it.

Matthew Parke

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